Reforming California Panel Discussion at UC Berkeley. 1

UC Berkeley Graduate Student Jonathan Stein leads a panel discussion on reforming California's broken system of government through a citizen's State Constitutional Convention. Speakers included Henry Brady (Dean, Goldman School of Public Policy), Elizabeth Hill (retired Head of the Legislative Analyst's Office, Ted Lempert (former California Assemblyman), and John Grubb (Spokesman for Repair California).

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• UC Berkeley
• Repair California
• ted lempert
• henry brady
• elizabeth hill
• john grubb
• jonathan stein
• constitutional convention
• state government reform
• budget crisis
• budget cuts
• uc budget cuts

[ericspiegelman]

Maybe we need to restore faith in the concept of republican democracy. Is that really such a hard sell? In 1789, the Federalists sold the concept of a single executive to a population that distrusted monarchy. Why can't we do the same for a population that distrusts the Legislature?

[ericspiegelman]

All of these problems are different reflections of the same thing: the gradual erosion of legislative power. Term limits, the supermajority requirement to raise taxes and pass a budget, taxing and spending via initiative -- each of these restricts the ability of the Legislature to act. Indeed, this is the point of the initiative process in general. It's odd that we trust ourselves to make laws but not to pick lawmakers.